i want to bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams with us from washington. pete, this weapon that lanza used at sandy hook elementary, a military-style rifle with 30 rounds in the clip, hundreds more at the ready, this is legal in a state with an assault weapons ban. tell our audience how is that possible? >> it's possible because of the way that assault weapons are defined in the law. this was true in the original assault weapons ban that was a federal one from 1994 to 2004. what it does is it says if a weapon possesses a certain number of features that the law considers to be primarily for military purpose such as a flash suppressor or a collapsable stock, if you have enough of those features, then the weapon becomes an assault weapon and it's banned. if it doesn't have enough of those features, then it's not. it's not the overall construction of the weapon. it's the focus on these individual features. and this is sort of the heart of the controversy, martin, because on the one hand is the point i gather your question implies, which is the assault weapons